VOLGEO3673 Title: Human Responses to Eruption

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: VOLGEO3673 Title: Human responses to eruptions of Etna (Sicily) during the late-Pre-Industrial Era and their implications for present-day disaster planning Article Type: Research Paper Keywords: Key words Etna, eruptions 1792/3 to 1923, reconstruction, human-responses, planning Abstract: Abstract This paper summarises: the characteristics of eruptions that occurred between 1792/3 and 1923; the ways in which human responses evolved during the period and the lessons this history holds for the management of present-day volcanic and volcano-related disasters. People responded to eruptions at three levels: as members of a family and extended family; through the mutual support of a village or larger settlement and as citizens of the State. During the study period and with the exception of limited financial aid and preservation of law and order, the State was a minor player in responding to eruptions. Families and extended families provided shelter, accommodation and often alternative agricultural employment; while supportive villages communities displayed a well developed tendency to learn from experience (e.g. innovating techniques to bring land back into cultivation and avoiding the risks of phreatic activity as lava encountered water and saturated ground) and providing labour to enable household chattels and agricultural crops to be salvaged from land threatened with lava incursion. Eruptions were widely believed to be 'Acts of God', with divine punishment frequently being invoked as a primary cause of human suffering. Elaborate rituals of propitiation were performed to appease a supposed angry God, but this world-view did not produce a fatalistic attitude amongst the population preventing people coping with disasters in a generally effective manner. Despite present day emergencies being handled by the State and its agencies, some features of nineteenth century responses remain in evidence, including salvaging all that may be easily removed from a building and/or agricultural holding, and explanations of disaster which are theistic in character. Lessons from eruptions that occurred between 1792/3 to 1923 are that the former should be encouraged, while the latter does not prevent people acting to preserve life and property or obeying the authorities. Earthquakes are one category of hazard that caused major damage during, or associated with, several historic eruptions especially those of 1865, 1883 and 1911. This study highlights the vulnerability of the Etna region to this hazard which remains largely un-ameliorated. Attempts to divert lava flows occurred during the 1832, 1879 and 1923 eruptions. *Highlights Highlights Innovative use of archival data sources Detailed reconstruction of eruptions 1792/3 to 1923 Detailed analysis of human responses during the study period Implications of this historical study for present-day hazard planning *Manuscript Click here to view linked References December 19 2011 Human responses to eruptions of Etna (Sicily) during the late-Pre-Industrial Era and their implications for present-day disaster planning By David K. Chestera, Angus M. Duncanb and Heather Sangstera a Department of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX. E-mail: (Chester) [email protected] E-mail: (Sangster) [email protected] b Research Graduate School, University of Bedfordshire, Park Square, Luton, LU1 3JU, United Kingdom e-mail: [email protected] Corresponding Author David K. Chester 2 1. Introduction One of the many enduring contributions made by Gilbert F. White (1974, pp. 5) to the literature on hazards was his introduction of the three-fold classification: pre-industrial (or folk); industrial and post-industrial (or comprehensive), to describe the characteristic ways in which human responses are related to levels of economic development. The transition from pre-industrial to industrial (Table 1) may be sequential, but this is not normally the case because the characteristics of both types of response may be seen at the same time within different social groups in disaster prone regions (White, 1974; Chester et al., 2005). In our previously published work (Chester et al., 2007; Coutinho et al., 2010) we have argued that in the relatively poor countries of Southern Europe this transition generally occurred later than was the case in Northern Europe and North America. In Southern Italy and Sicily State control over disaster management may be dated to 1908, as exemplified by the Messina earthquake (Dickie, 2000), and 1928 in the case of volcanic eruptions, when the Fascist government led by Benito Mussolini acted in a purposeful manner when faced with a major flank eruption of Etna which destroyed the large agricultural village of Mascali (Fig. 1). Some pre-industrial elements, for example the use of religion to explain disaster losses were present, however, within this and many subsequent eruptions (Duncan et al., 1976; Chester et al., 1999, 2008). Conversely in earlier eruptions isolated examples of State involvement in, rather than control over, responses may be instanced from the classical era onwards and included: the Roman authorities granting a 10-year moratorium on the payment of taxes by the city of Catania following the eruption of 122 BC (Rodwell, 1878, pp. 82); and, during the largest historic eruption in 1669, the Spanish Viceroy sending troops to restore order and provided 3 limited money to aid recovery (Mack-Smith, 1968). Limited State involvement also occurred throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (see section 4.1.3). Since Gilbert White wrote nearly four decades years ago, the term pre-industrial has become well established in the hazard research literature (e.g. Helbling, 2007; Junela and Mauelshagen, 2007) and archival research now allows the impacts of Etna's eruptions between 1792/3 and 1923, a period we term the long nineteenth century1, to be assessed using this framework. Many detailed contemporary and near contemporary accounts of eruptions are now readily available electronically, with examples including: Sicilian scientific journals, in particular the Atti della Accademia gioenia di scienze naturali (Catania); major research volumes, for instance Mario Gemmellaro's (1809) Memoria dell’eruzione dell’ Etna avvenuta nel-l’anno 1809 and Francesco Ferrara's (1818) Descrizione dell’ Etna con la storia delle eruzioni e il catalogo dei prodotti; and international newspapers of record, especially the New York Times and the Times (London) both of which reported nineteenth century eruptions in considerable detail often using both their own correspondents and lengthy accounts from expatriates. In addition English language provincial newspapers often published accounts of eruptions and these are available electronically for the nineteenth century for both the U.S.A. and U.K.2 Some important 19th century reference works are available as reprints, most notably 1 The widely used term the Long Nineteenth Century was introduced by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1962) to describe the period between the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the beginning to the First World War in 1914. In this paper it is extended to include the 1923 eruption, because responses had more in common with earlier eruptions than they had with the subsequent flank event which occurred in 1928. 2 These are available from Gale Databases (Gale CENGAGE Learning) - (http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/menu/commonmenu.do?userGroupName=li vuni) 4 Carlo Gemmellaro's (1858) La Vulcanologia dell’ Etna (Cucuzza-Silvestri, 1989), whilst others may be obtained from copyright libraries. Particularly useful sources are Sartorius von Waltershausen's (1880) Der Aetna and late nineteenth century geological maps, especially the Carta Geologica d'Italia alla scala 1:100.000 (Gemmellaro, 1885a, 1885b). More recently a major catalogue of earthquakes affecting the Mount Etna region has been published (CMTE Working Group, 2008). In addition evidence about the destruction caused by these eruptions and responses to them was collected in the field by visiting historic lava flows and the comuni (i.e. municipalities) which were affected by them. The aim of this paper is threefold: first, to summarise the characteristics of eruptions which occurred between 1792/3 and 1923 and the ways in which responses evolved during the long nineteenth century; secondly to reconstruct their impacts; and finally to assess the important lessons this history holds for the management of disaster planning within the twin contexts of White's comprehensive approach and Italian policies of civil protection. 2. Eruptions during the long nineteenth century 2.1 A summary of the volcanic history of Etna Mount Etna rises to over 3000 m, dominates eastern Sicily, covers an area of ca. 1750 km2 and is continually active. Activity commenced 300-400 ka years ago in a marine gulf (Chester et al., 1985; Bonaccorso et al., 2004) and the last major caldera forming eruption occurred ca. 15 ka years ago with the close of the Ancient Mongibello stage, which was marked by caldera collapse and eruption of trachytic pyroclastic flows 5 (Guest et al., 2003). Since then activity in the Recent Mongibello stage has been basaltic and has comprised persistent activity at the summit, punctuated by larger-scale strombolian flank eruptions which have produced voluminous lava flows (Chester et al., 1985). Records of eruptions became reasonably

Load more